The present invention relates generally to a multifunctional laser scanning system and, more particularly, to a multi-functional laser scanning system which may incorporate the functions of an image scanner, a laser printer, a digital copier and a facsimile machine into a single business machine.
Typically, a laser scanning device in a laser printer provides an image print-out by impinging light and dark dots of light, representing digital data of an image to be printed out, upon a charged light sensitive drum which thus forms thereon a latent image of the image to be printed out. The latent image is then used to produce an image print-out by means of the so-called Chester Carison cycle of the electro-photography. On the contrary, an image scanner normally carriers out an operation to input an image either by projecting the image of a document through optical lenses upon a charge coupled device (CCD), or by directly reading the image of the document by means of a contact type image sensor. So far, an image outputting device (such as a laser printer) and an image inputting device (such as an image scanner) are independent of each other.